Category: Poem

Nobody

 I was nobody

I was never known by millions.

I was not of influence, wealth, or power

I was just another person in the crowd.

I was a body at many different jobs

I had a few relatives and friends all over

Some I only talked with on the phone or online.

I think some of them miss me, but I am not sure

I know what is left of my family misses me

The empty seat at the table still makes them all tear up.

I was nobody

The world did not know me

I was a face passing through the realm of time

My anonymity was both a curse and a blessing

 I did not matter to most people.

I was a just few numbers and a name

on cards and things in my wallet

I was of little to no value to most people

I was just one of many who died of a deadly virus

Now I am a number in a death count that still climbs

I was nobody

Yet a stranger held my hand knowing my light was extinguishing

A trembling hand that had clearly held too many hands like mine

with a pair of teary exhausted eyes ravaged by this unrelenting insanity

The stranger gave me hope because after all the pain and suffering they endured

they were able to find a few more tears within them for a nobody

The stranger understood that I was not just another face or number

They realized that this nobody was someone to somebody somewhere.

Can You Imagine?

     Can you imagine being chained in a ship and taken to a strange land against your will?

     Can you imagine you and yours being shackled and sold to farms to work the land?

     Can you imagine being whipped for just saying something or looking the wrong way?

     Can you imagine your wife or daughter being used as brood mares to create more workers?

     Can you imagine your loved ones being categorized just like any other livestock?

     Can you imagine finally acquiring your freedom after a lifetime of imposed servitude?

     Can you imagine a country founded on the ideal of freedom denying it to so many?

     Can you imagine being hated and treated unequally just because you looked different?

     Can you imagine being hunted by people in hoods with bibles and crosses in their hand?

     Can you imagine being in fear for your life just for walking someplace or talking to someone?

     Can you imagine seeing your father or son in a hangman’s noose swinging from a tree?

     Can you imagine not being able to use a bathroom just because you were the wrong color?

     Can you imagine having to scold your child for using one of those bathrooms?

     Can you imagine being told that you cannot ride in a seat in the front of the bus?

     Can you imagine being told there is no vacancy at a motel when you know there is vacancies?

     Can you imagine people not serving you at a restaurant because you were not the right color?

     Can you imagine people crossing the street because they feared walking by you?

     Can you imagine having feelings for someone but not acting on them because of others?  

     Can you imagine being gunned down by those who are supposed to protect and serve?

     Can you imagine being sprawled out on the ground with someone’s knee on your neck, struggling for every breath, asking for your mother, knowing the life is slowly draining from your body and wondering why?

     Can you imagine?

God Make It Stop!

The hearts of our once invisible heroes grow weary fighting a relentless demon.

God make it stop!

They sacrifice all with little to save souls from the consuming darkness surrounding them.

God make it stop!

How many faces of those gasping for life’s last breath will be burned into their memories?

God make it stop!

How many hands will go lifeless in theirs because of a viral monster that yet goes unanswered?

God make it stop!

How often must they gaze into already tear-soaked faces and be the bearers of even worse news?

God make it stop!

How many times will they totally collapse from exhaustion from working extra shifts and hours?

God make it stop!

How many more tears will fall behind their masks for those they could not pull back from death?

God make it stop!

They yearn for a whisper of hope to dull the ventilators symphony of despair and desperation.

God make it stop!

They search for the rainbow beyond a dark ominous cloud that now besieges all humanity.

God make it stop!

           

Written for all the medical professionals working tirelessly through this epidemic.

Who Are We?

Are we a shining beacon of possibility to people everywhere?

Or are we doomed to float endlessly in the sea of our own contempt?

Who are we?

Are we the welcoming light of hope held up on high for all to see?

Or have we succumbed to the darkness of hatred and indifference?

Who are we?

Are we the champion that seeks to set the best example for the rest of the world?

Or have we resigned ourselves to accept the requiem of our national conscience?

Who are we?

Are we capable of finding the greatness within ourselves once again?

Or will we endlessly tumble into the unquieted abyss of our past glory?

Who are we?

Are we doomed to sit in quiet desperation contemplating what once was for eternity?

Or will we once again strive to make our greatness more than an empty slogan on a cap?

Who are we?

Where Did Our Beloved America Go?

A Democracy forged in the fire of human discontent

and molded into an enduring symbol of freedom.

A Republic founded on the highest of human ideals

to aggressively defend against tyranny and oppression

that may come from within our borders and far beyond.

A country of immigrants from every corner of the world

who always held true to the promise for others that came.

A land of hope cradled between two shinning seas

where anything no matter how improvable was possible,

where dreams that seemed impossible could be realized.

A nation full of people who are stronger and better

only when they elect to embrace their great diversity,

and not only celebrate their differences, but relish in them.

The home of a grand lady with a torch standing in a busy harbor,

a bold monument to the virtues and principles of freedom itself,

a profound testament to what our great country proudly stands for,

a welcoming sight for those desperately seeking a flicker of hope,

for those yearning to be free from persecution and oppression,

for those seeking a new beginning in a more accepting place.

 

Please! Please! tell me where did our beloved America go?

How did we go from tearing down walls in other nations

to erecting these unwelcoming monuments in our own backyard?

How did we go from being the leader of the free world

to putting people from neighboring countries in metal cages?

How did we go from being the world’s defender of democracy

to separating small children from their families at our borders?

How did we lose our civility and our national sense of purpose

to become repugnant provocateurs of ignorance and intolerance?

Today one small child cries for their mother on our border.

Tomorrow we mourn in silence for a great nation,

that once was the focal point of democracy in the world,

that once set the example for other nations to follow,

that once stood as the standard-bearer for freedom everywhere.

Please! Please! tell me will our beloved America ever return?

Would My Love Endure?

If I were to have to say goodbye tomorrow,

would you know how much I loved you?

If I took my last step on this earth,

would you remember the feel my love?

If I kissed your luscious lips one last time,

would they remember the taste of my love?

If I gasped one last I love you before dying,

would the breath of my love linger in the air?

If my heart were to stop beating in your arms,

would you still feel the rhythm of my love?

If the angels were forced to take me from you,

would the memory of my love for you endure?

Dixie Rose

Dixie Rose!

You are an enduring natural beauty of immeasurable quality.

The blanket of pink flowers that embrace your lovely branches

conceal an internal strength and a unique unwavering grace

for not even the torrential flood waters of life

or the relentless savagery of a soulless pair of hands

could overcome your will and stubborn resilience

to rip you out by the root and rape you of your splendor.

Despite it all you remain just as desirable as ever

full of a yearning passion that could never be denied.

 

Dixie Rose!

Fear not these tired rugged old hands for they are mere extensions

of a loving heart, full of more patience, and understanding

than you have ever known or could even begin to imagine.

I fear not your painful sharp thorns or the blood they may draw

for I know in my heart they were put there to preserve you.

Once we Were the Greatest of Friends

Once we were the greatest of friends

We enjoyed each other’s company

We could talk to each other for hours

We talked about anything and everything

Nothing was off limits or sacred between us

I used to love to make you laugh and smile

I never thought you did enough of either

You once said that we had a special connection

I thought nothing could ever come between us

I thought you would always be a part of my life

I thought we would be friends until the end

I cared for you to the very depths of my soul

I came to love you for unique reasons

Your difficult life made me crazy with worry

Your silence only served to make that worse

I would wonder if you were hurt or dead

I foolishly tried to be your everything

knowing full well that was impossible

but that did not keep me from trying

because you were always worth it to me

 

Once we were the greatest of friends

You once said you had a big heart

but there was no room in it for me

You must hate me to your very core

You knew nothing would hurt me more

than to leave me writhing in confusion

behind your unrelenting wall of silence

forever to wonder if you are dead or alive

silently praying that your life got less scary

because I will never stop caring about you

I refuse to give up on you like others have

You and others may think me a fool

but realize that I do not have it in me

to do to you what you are doing to me

I truly hope you are in a better place now

and nothing but good ever comes to you

I hope you find everything you seek in life

 

 

Maybe someday before I take my final journey

you will realize the kind of friend you had in me

Hopefully someday you will find a way to forgive me

for being crazy enough about you to foolishly believe

that I could fill all the voids and vacuums in your life

that others deliberately caused or callously left behind

Perhaps someday you will finally come to understand

that I did this because I believed you were far better

than the sum of all your mistakes and bad judgements.

When I looked at you I never saw just another woman

who had simply been ravaged by life and left broken

I saw what I believed was a “Masterpiece Undefined”

Alas maybe I am nothing more than a crazy blind dreamer

stumbling through life seeing only the very best in people

daring to believe that I can make them see what I see.

 

 

 

 

 

To Love Blindly

Why do you constantly keep saying you love me?
What did I ever do or say to make you feel that way?
There has never been an intimate moment between us.
We have never passionately kissed or embraced each other.
We never walked holding each other’s hands like lover’s do.
What have I ever done or you think I did to deserve your love?
How can you stand there and say that you love me?
You are either crazy or just another liar.
In either case, I know you will hurt me.
How could I possibly believe in you?
I can see you, hear you, and touch you,
but there is no way you can be for real.
I am too broken to take a leap of faith.
My heart has lied to me far too often.
I can no longer trust my own feelings.
If you do really love me, you must be a fool
I am too damaged to be loved by anyone.
A true heart would be wasted on me now.
I am a bundle of doubts and fears
wrapped in a blanket of insecurity.
Why would anyone want to love me?

The shattered heart captures the caring eyes
of the one capable of seeing a beautiful heart
reflected in the smallest of shards left behind
in the consuming wake of false love’s savage fury.
The one who sees a heart once full of passion
flailing in the rapids of sorrow desperately
grasping for any reason to believe in love again.
The one with hands strong enough to pull
it free from the perilous fate that awaits.
The one who sees great beauty in imperfection,
who thinks a ravaged heart is worth saving,
who believes that it can be restored to splendor,
who blindly loves not what it has become,
but all it could be.

Masterpiece Undefined

On a dusty easel at a yard sale
awaiting a best offer from a patron
sat a severely damaged oil painting
of a very lovely young woman.
Her beautiful frame was fractured and separated at the corners.
She was shamefully abused by some and neglected by others.
She had been colored on by boys, who did not know her worth,
and stored in a damp garage as if she were of no value to anyone.

Everyone passed her by offering no more than a casual glance
except for one old man who had a passion for restoring fine art.
The man stared intently at the battered and abused painting
wondering how a unique piece of art like her got to this place.
With the gentlest of touch, he lifts the painting off the easel
still staring at the portrait, but tilting his head first left then right
wondering if he can restore this beauty to her original splendor.
Yes, that captivating smile, those alluring ocean blue eyes,
and the unbreakable spirit behind them speak to my soul,
so I must try to do what all others have deemed impossible.

No beautiful lady in oil you may never be worth a fortune,
or hang in a museum to be adorned by millions of people,
but you will always be worth one man’s time and effort
for his eyes can only see the masterpiece you could be.